Alcohol Use in Adolescents: Screening and Behavioral Counseling Interventions

1. A trial with an unscreened comparison group to understand the population-level effects of screening in primary care settings.
2. More direct evidence on the harms associated with screening and behavioral interventions.
3. Further test performance studies on the USAUDIT and USAIDIT-C to confirm their accuracy in identifying unhealthy alcohol use in various populations.
4. Evidence on important clinical outcomes, such as longer-term morbidity, mortality, health care utilization, and social and legal outcomes.
5. Trials designed a priori to report subgroup effects in diverse populations (e.g., by age, sex, race/ethnicity, or baseline severity)
6. High-quality studies to assess the effects of screening and behavioral counseling in adolescents
7. In addition, studies in adolescents are often conducted in school settings, which may not translate to primary care settings. More studies of adolescents in primary care settings are needed.

The USPSTF concludes that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening and brief behavioral counseling interventions for alcohol use in primary care settings in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years.

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